Rhetoric echoes native title fight

Eighteen years ago mining companies warned of dire consequences from legislation enabling the recognition of Aboriginal rights to their traditional lands. Yesterday, an industry leader acknowledged that the fears turned out to be exaggerated.

Announcing a landmark native title deal covering 70,000 square kilometres of the Pilbara, the head of
Rio Tinto
’s giant iron ore division,
Sam Walsh
, said that the access to land and business flexibility provided by the agreement was a “game changer".

And as mining companies complain about the damage a carbon tax will cause the industry, Mr Walsh acknowledged that the High Court’s decision in Mabo and the Native Title Act enacted by Paul Keating’s government were nowhere near as bad as predicted at the time.

Then, like now, companies claimed they would be forced overseas. But since 1993, the value of mining exports has increased from $15 billion to more than $120 billion.

“People back then had a fairly sort of limited view of the world," Mr Walsh told The Australian Financial Review. “With the Mabo court finding, I think people didn’t have a view as to how it would actually work. Well, I think these agreements show exactly how it can work."

Mr Walsh’s comments coincided with renewed attacks on Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott
over his claims that a carbon price would end manufacturing and coalmining.

Former Liberal leader
John Hewson
, who opposed the Native Title Act in 1993, said yesterday there were parallels between the Mabo debate and the campaign against a carbon tax.

“It was nothing more than a scare campaign," Mr Hewson said. “There was all this extreme stuff about land claims over Sydney Harbour and people wanted to believe that, but the fact is, it has worked pretty well. These debates turn on the extreme and you are creating fear about the extremes."

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Mr Walsh did not acknowledge any parallels between the current debate over the carbon tax and that concerning the Native Title Act in 1993.

He said the key benefit of the government’s mining tax would be the development of technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a significant softening of tone from the mining industry.

“Whatever is enacted [needs to] recognise that Australia is an export economy and ensure that we don’t just export greenhouse gases to countries that don’t have the same focus as us in technology and innovation in this area," Mr Walsh said.

“We need to ensure that people are encouraged to invest in this technology that ultimately is going to be a solution. A carbon price perhaps helps to reduce energy usage a smidgen but the key benefit is that it allows people to invest in technologies that are actually going to be the solution."

Yesterday former prime minister
Bob Hawke
entered the carbon debate at the launch of a report to mark the 20th anniversary of the decision to ban mining in Kakadu in the Northern Territory.

Mr Hawke said he had faced a similar campaign from the opposition and mining companies over Kakadu. “[The mining ban] was going to end the mining industry as we knew it. Investors were going to be frightened off from Australia, they were going to pull up stumps and go away," Mr Hawke said. “Now you recognise exactly the same nonsense again."

Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
said the campaign against the carbon tax by the opposition was as silly as the campaign against the decision to stop mining in Kakadu.

Separately, Treasury secretary
Martin Parkinson
dismissed as “extravagant" claims that a carbon tax would send steel makers and manufacturers to the wall.

“These claims do not stand up to scrutiny," Dr Parkinson said. “There are pressures on the steel industry that have nothing to do with the impact of a carbon tax."